BBC crew filming at the Sylva Wood Centre
We are excited to be featuring in the BBC One programme Countryfile this coming Sunday.
The programme, which will be broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday 19th April, is on the theme of Britain’s woodlands. Sylva’s CEO Gabriel Hemery is interviewed among beautiful woodland at the Oxford University Harcourt Arborteum, while two of our first tenants moving into the Sylva Wood Centre also feature.
Rodas Irving of Oxford Oak talks about the installation of the thermally-modified hardwood cladding (read more) at the Sylva Wood Centre, which is being applied thanks to the support of Grown in Britain. Simon Clements, another of our new tenants, talks about moving from his current workshop to our exciting new venue, where we are fostering skills and innovation in home-grown wood.
Read more on the BBC Countryfile website
More about the programme from the BBC Countryfile website:
In this themed programme Ellie Harrison, John Craven and Anita Rani explore Britain’s woodlands. Ellie is high up in the canopy with the scientists collecting leaf buds to learn more about the effects of CO2 on woodland. She then helps release some hedgehogs, one of the nations’ favourite and most-threatened woodland species, back into the wild. John finds out what it takes to manage your own woodland and discovers that the return of the old craft of coppicing is proving a boom to wildlife. He also joins the conservationists using novel methods to increase the dormice populations in Shropshire’s woods. And Anita discovers how to build with baked wood – using a new technique that hardens and weatherproofs timbers making them much more durable and better for building with. Adam Henson has the third and final of the Countryfile’s Farming Heroes nominees. The biggest threat to British trees is disease – and in many cases there’s no cure. Tom Heap investigates the threats to our woodland and finds out what we can all do to defend our trees.
Wood innovation
Anita Rani is in Oxfordshire, with the Sylva Foundation, as they open their brand new Wood Centre for the very first time. Anita joins Rodas as he finishes the cladding on the building, which is made from thermally treated British ash and sycamore. This treatment makes the wood more durable, allowing it to be used more widely. Anita meets with one of the new tenants of the Wood Centre, sculptor Simon Clements, who is taking his inspiration from the quivering leaves of the woodland canopy.
Also features Small Woods’ Richard Thomason discussing coppice restoration in Edge Wood, Shropshire – delivering economic benefits alongside biodiversity gains.
great to see Grown in Britain sycamore cladding on Countryfile at the Sylva wood centre. Get yours via james@tylerhardwoods.com good for a range of jobs !
Very interesting report on sycamore cladding. What are the weathering characteristics likely to be? I am tired of the dull silver finish of cedar cladding, and would like to think that the thermal treatment might preserve the original fresh appearance.
Hi Stephen – the honest answer is that we don’t really know yet and partly the idea with this first application of the material in the UK is to test these things. It looks very smart on the wall. We have noticed that it has already faded since application. Do contact Tyler Hardwoods to find out more: http://www.tylerhardwoods.com/